


90 Days Challenge

by takoyaki (orphan_account)



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Game Shows, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 06:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16697335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/takoyaki
Summary: “Now, looking at this wheel, today’s mission for Nanase Riku is…!”Riku’s eyes bulge.There must be a mistake. He can’t be that unlucky…!“-To tell your unit mate “I love you” everyday for the next three months!”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a certain BTS fic

“Next up is the centre of Idolish7… Nanase Riku!”

Riku gulps.

It would be a lie to say that he’s not nervous. He has two sweaty palms to prove it after all, and one quick look at the deadpanning face of Yamato earns him an unamused croak. Riku quickly looks back at the camera. There are things that one should not do, and whilst chortling at Idolish7’s leader decked out in a frog costume _is_ decidedly on his list to do, he can’t help but get the feeling karma would be served very soon.

“Step up to the wheel of fate, please!” The emcee lifts a hand to the air dramatically.

Mitsuki is all too gleeful.

“Go for it, Riku!” The older boy pushes him forward.

“D-Don’t get any more zombie makeup, Rikkun-!” Tamaki’s breath hitches as he catches another glimpse of Sougo out of the corner of his eyes. One half of Mezzo tilts his head, puzzled. “Sou-chan! Don’t look this way!”

“ _Oh…_ What’s wrong, _Tamaki_? You look like you’re at your wits’ end—” Nagi leans in, a hand pressed to his chest all concerned. It would help, had the blond foreigner not have an axe sticking out of his bloody sculp.

Riku feels a pang of sympathy for the shrieking Tamaki who holds his eyes, terrified.

Right. He should try to avoid the zombie makeup, if he can help it.

“What are you doing, daydreaming?” Iori deadpans. “We don’t have all day, Nanase-san.”

What a disagreeable kid, as usual!

“I know, I know…!” Riku scrunches his face at him, barely resisting the urge to stick his tongue out on national television. “I’ll spin the wheel, alright?”

“Ribbit.” Yamato intones at the same time Riku trips.

Time stills for a second.

Riku sees himself falling, the wheel getting closer as his fingertips land upon a single pin on the wheel. He sees the emcee, lips parting in shock, the members of Idolish7 coming closer in a vain attempt to break his fall. He hears the wheel spinning – the clicking sound of each nail passing by the arrow sounding more like his plausible descend to hell – and he falls flat on his face, right before the decidedly very unamused Iori.

“How clumsy, Nanase-san.” Another exasperated sigh.

Riku feels his face burn.

Smooth hands slide over his front, heaving him up. Riku’s momentarily taken by the shock of Iori this close up, before embarrassment replaces it.

“Oh! That was a hard fall! Are you alright, Riku-kun?” The emcee rushes forward.

Riku laughs sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. A sharp pang in his chest drags a strangled pained sound out of him. He shoulders on with a smile (for their fans).

“I’m fine… This is just the usual!”

“Really, our centre is always such a handful.” Yamato offers a hand. Riku’s hauled to his feet, a reassuring glimmer in his smile at the briefly questioning look the other sends him. Mitsuki steps forward, always ready with a quip on his lips to distract from Riku’s embarrassing episode.

“Really, really! Riku is so clumsy, there’s so many funny incidents… Like that one time where he faceplanted in spaghetti sauce! The red was everywhere, everyone thought Sougo might have committed massacre by tobacco—”

“Eh? Why would I? I like Riku-kun.” Sougo looks at them, puzzled.

A moment of silence falls over Idolish7. Riku shudders. He thinks he even hears Tamaki whimper away from the mic. Does that mean Sougo would do it if he doesn’t like Riku—

“The mission’s out.” Iori points out, breaking the nervous tension.

“Ah! Indeed, it is!” The emcee leaps back to action. “Now, looking at this wheel, today’s mission for Nanase Riku is…!”

Riku’s eyes bulge.

There must be a mistake. He can’t be that unlucky…!

“-To tell your unit mate “I love you” everyday for the next three months!”

“……………………!”

“Pfft—” Yamato turns away, muffling his laughter with a palm, the traitor he is.

Riku sulks at him, hoping to convey his displeasure through a Tenn-Nii-esque glare. (read: pout)

“What was that? ‘I love you’, you said?” Mitsuki leans forward, a palm pressed against the small of Riku’s back in comfort. He smoothly moves the conversation along for the pleased-looking emcee.

“Indeed! Saying ‘I love you’ to a groupmate for every day of three months – this is a new mission that our production team has come up with to strengthen the ties of Idolish7! The rules of this are as follows! One, it has to be once every day, in those exact words. Two, any form of media is allowed. Phones, texts, letters etcetera! And three! The message has to be delivered personally to the intended recipient. No cheating is allowed by saying it to a crowd. The recipient will report back to this program at the end of these ninety days!”

Riku lifts his blazing face. He makes the mistake of looking Iori’s way. The other’s pinkish features are sullen, almost accusing in its intensity.

“Between the two of us,” Iori whispers, even if it’s totally being picked up by his mic. “Let’s just say you’ve said it every day and leave it at that.”

“Oh! But since we’ve anticipated such tricks from our games’ participants—” The emcee continues as if he hasn’t heard them. “—We’ve corresponded with Idolish7’s manager-san, who agreed to check in regularly on Iori-kun!”

Manager smiles and waves nervously for the camera. She’s mouthing a silent apology with a faint smile.

Riku turns back to Iori.

“We’re in deep trouble.” He gulps, eyes wide.

“Whose fault is that?” Iori deadpans.

“Let’s get to starting this mission off, shall we?” The emcee blazes through the stage with his enthusiasm. Riku is revising his impression of the man, sweating under his hold. “But before that, a word from our poor lamb – ah, I mean, our highly anticipated centre!” The dummy mic’s shoved before his face. Riku’s more nervous than when he started out.

“I – ah – H-How should I put it…?” He side eyes Iori. The harsh high schooler maintains an impassive expression.

“Don’t look at us!” Mitsuki cruelly abandons him with the rest of Idolish7.

“Ribbit.” Yamato says when he turns to him.

One thing Riku learnt today? Life is not fair, and you’ve got to give in on some days.

“Urgh… I…” Riku squeezes his eyes shut. He takes a huge breath. “I……love you, Iori…?”

It comes out as a question, full of uncertainty and airiness that resembles his sick state.

But Iori’s face turns pink again, the edges of his ears less peachy than they were before. Mitsuki bursts out with hooting claps. The emcee makes laughter and amused comments. Sougo is the only kind soul out of all of them, holding Riku against him when he collapses his way shakily. Even Yamato is sighing like he’s back in high school, making a comment of “This is youth, huh. How nostalgic…” Riku wishes he’ll go back to his ‘ribbit’-ing penalty.

“It looks like this pair certainly is handling their first day well, all things considered!” The emcee chuckles for the camera. “We look forward to checking in on them three months from now!”


	2. Chapter 2

Some things, Riku decides, he will never get used to regardless how many times he repeats it. Every passing day spent separate from Tenn-Nii, for instance. Every moment spent with Idolish7, who feels more like _family_ but never quite enough to soothe the terror of being left behind (again).

Then, there’s Iori.

Riku feels dizzy with every utter of ‘I love you’ he remembers, a breathless thrill which he most definitely does not need.

As a matter of fact, the very act of trying to find appropriate times to slot in “I love you”s is tedious in itself.

The second day, Riku hasn’t even remembered anything (he’d prefer to wipe every memory of the day before, honestly) and Iori was slipping on his shoes, a toast between his teeth and Tamaki hauled behind him, when Mitsuki promptly called them out on it.

“And what about your ‘I love you’s?”

Riku froze, instantly awake. Iori froze too, which was quite a feat because he had one leg up in an awkward posture and a quarter-awake Tamaki leaning against him like a cat. Riku had looked Iori in the eye. Had connected to him in that one rare moment where they – for once – agree this was something that had to be done regardless of their mutual embarrassment. And Riku had offered a smile which he hoped was natural (but he knows for a fact conveyed his urge to escape this room instead).

“I l-love you.”

Not a good way to say it, pre-throat-warming voice crack and all. But succinct.

Iori nodded, looking quite put in the place as well.

“I’m off.” And he was, dashing off at a pace that makes Riku relieved he no longer has school.

Then, there’s a day where he remembered the mission in the cold of the night. Literally seconds before the digital alarm flickers to 12:00, Riku found himself leaping across the hallway to knock on Iori’s doors, greeted by the sleepy-looking Iori. The other was the most dishevelled he’s ever seen him, bed hair sticking up and everything.

“Iori, I love you!” A desperate near-yelp that made indigo eyes widen in realization.

“It’s… 11:59, Nanase-san.” Iori looked at his clock, unamused. He sighed, leaning against his door. “Please be more timely the next time.”

“Ahaha… Sorry, I’ll try.” This time was Riku’s fault, he’ll admit.

They’d went to sleep just like that.

Cue and ensue chaos in the following days, because Riku learns to take every first opportunity he has remembering their mission to say it.

“Iori, pass me the soy sauce, please,” Riku beams as the younger boy does so. “Tha – I love you.” He adds as an afterthought, changing it last minute.

Iori chokes. As does the rest of Idolish7, because everyone had been so fixated on watching Riku lose his composure over that one line.

Riku is still caught between being devoured by his throes of embarrassment and being far too entertained by that pinkish tint in the tips of Iori’s ears when the younger boy turns away. Mitsuki laughs over everyone’s reaction and suggests that they do this challenge as a team. He learns to regret his decision within a minute of Nagi.

“Before anything else,” Riku tells Iori on yet another variety program, a pie behind his back. “Just know that I love you!”

Cream explodes on Iori’s features. He chortles at the sight of Iori trying to breathe through the smears. Iori tries but still trips and falls over the side of the pool.

“Nanase-san, your definition of love is distorted.” The sulky high school boy glares up at him.

“Iori!” Riku races towards the boy onstage, just moments after the joint program with Trigger ends.

“Nanase-san?” Iori furrows his brows. He turns towards him. “Is there something wro—”

“I love you!” Riku calls out to him, waving an arm dramatically. He laughs, sort of breathless from the light jog, just a bit exhilarated still by his mission of the day. “I just wanted to tell you that!” And he turns and strides out of there as quickly as possible, struggling to keep the red from his face.

Iori is frozen stiff when a hand claps fake-amicably over his shoulder.

“Would you like to explain that?” Kujo smiles.

By the end of the week, it gets out around recording studios that Idolish7’s Izumi Iori and Nanase Riku are doing something interesting. A hashtag begins to trend, fans always sneaking in a pic or two of their pair together. #Ioriku it says. Television programs take to questioning them about their mission, always inviting Riku to say the line onstage. He always does, without fail. Iori’s signature pink ears is divulged to the fans. He never gets used to that line.

“I love you”s becomes something that’s commonly dropped between them nevertheless.

Riku rarely, if ever, says it to Iori in private though.

If Iori notices it, he does not mention it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be merging these chapters into a one-shot at the end of this story. Hopefully, I'll have time to finish this.


End file.
